Redheaded Angel
by NinaR22
Summary: Paramedic Chloe is called to an accident in a garage. Normally she wouldn't even think about visiting one of her former patients, but this time something is different. Bechloe AU.


'Miss Mitchell?'

'Try it again, she should respond by now, I didn't give her too much.'

'Miss Mitchell? Beca? Beca, can you hear me? If you can hear me, please open your eyes!'

She was pulled out of the comfortable black nothingness by light though painful touches on her temple and her left hip. The dizziness inside her head didn't help when she was brought back into reality and she groaned loudly.

'Beca, please open your eyes!'

The called girl groaned again and tried out of instinct to reach down groggily to the worst pain. The hands from her temple vanished for a second and she felt them around one wrist.

She tried and opened her eyes, her head pounding. A very bright light was shining above her and if it wasn't for her situation she would have turned away. But right now two fingers were holding her eyelids.

'Pupils isocore. Beca, stay awake, okay? Can you hear me?'

Beca gave a muffled sound of agreement. She couldn't really focus anything quite clearly and apart from the light that still hurt her eyes and a dark silhouette there was nothing.

'Pulse okay. What's with the temple? Skull fractured?'

'No, just a laceration, nothing too serious. A proper concussion I assume though.'

'The hip and upper thigh definitely are fractured. I've taken care of it for the moment, but I'd say we take her away.'

'Yeah, I'll stay in the back.'

'Okay. The friend is driving with me in the front.'

Beca couldn't follow anything from the conversation, she just felt the pain slowly dissipating, her left side becoming kind of numb. She was getting overwhelmed by tiredness again, feeling sleep creeping up, craving silence for her head which felt by now as though it was filled with cotton wool.

One of the voices had other plans for her though, trying desperately to keep her awake. She was pretty sure it was a female one.

'Beca, we're driving you to the hospital now, okay? From there we'll call your parents. Your friend Stacie is in the front with my colleague.'

'Uh huh.', she tried to agree. She felt someone squeezing her hand and saw a red haze, then nothing.

 _Beep. Beep. Beep._

Chloe hated the intensive care unit. Monitors and weird sounds everywhere and that strange feeling of dying people close by.

Of course as a paramedic she was used to this.

Hell, she had probably witnessed dozen dead bodies being carried away by now. But this was different. People were alive in here. Sometimes fighting, sometimes not.

But she had to admit, wearing her bright uniform with the reflectors made it a lot easier to get by suspicious nurses and doctors.

 _Beep. Beep. Beep._

For the three hundredth time she asked herself what she was doing in here. Aubrey had warned her, told her not to do this. Told her how dumb she was and yeah, she had to agree. She was. Why she was doing this was a maze to her, too. But somehow after the end of her work day and after leaving the ambulance she was kind of drawn in this direction.

So now she was walking down a suspiciously clean hallway with suspiciously looking nurses and suspiciously beeping machinery.

Room number 17. Right in front of her. She couldn't. Or could she? Taking a deep breath, she knocked.

'Come in, if you aren't trying to drug me.', was the sarcastic answer and with a chuckle Chloe entered the room.

It looked like any hospital room. White walls, a mint green floor and two patient's beds, the space between them filled with monitors, infusion racks and a lot of tubes and wires.

Only one of the beds was occupied by a tiny brunette who seemed way too small for it and almost looked like a china doll. She was sitting upright, her pale skin slightly grey, a huge plaster covering half of her forehead.

She smirked a little, looking confusedly at the newcomer.

'Hello… you coming to take me to the more intense intensive care unit?', she asked sarcastically.

Chloe's heart was racing with nervousness. Of course, the girl had no idea who she was and probably couldn't remember a thing.

'No, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you're probably not going to need intense intensive care anymore soon.', she answered chuckling.

'Uhm… okay. A new neighbor, then? Mostly they are getting wheeled in and wheeled out pretty fast. You're a slow-mo kinda gal?'

Chloe couldn't believe how upfront she was. It was hilarious.

'No, I actually came to request a visit.', she said.

The brunette narrowed her eyes a little. 'And how did I earn myself such an honor?'

Her tone was flirtatious and Chloe decided to play along. She flipped her hair playfully while stepping closer, feeling her self-confidence growing.

'Well, milady, it was my honor and great pleasure to save your life this morning and I wanted to see if you are in good constitution.', the paramedic answered and did a little curtsy.

Suddenly Beca gaped at her, looking shocked. 'You… no…But… I'm so, so sorry, Miss. I didn't want to be rude. Thanks for your services. I really thought you were just fucking with me… ugh, sorry, language. Thanks for visiting me. That's… uhm…'

Chloe couldn't help, but smile. Her rambling really was cute. It didn't really match the smirking sarcastic person she had been just seconds ago, but she kind of liked both. She probably would be sarcastic as well after a long day of hospital tests and people trying to put their fingers or wires into or onto everything. It was exhausting.

'It's fine. Job and stuff. Please call me Chloe.', she introduced herself.

'Beca. But you probably knew that.', the brunette answered and awkwardly shook Chloe's hand. It was kind of unexpected. Raw and robust. The hands of a hard working person.

'Yeah, I do.' They smiled at each other for a moment, until Beca broke the silence with a surprised exclamation, startling Chloe.

'Wait! You're… you're the redheaded… oh my God!', she screeched and covered her blush with the hospital blanket.

'What?', Chloe asked puzzled. She was still standing next to Beca's bed looking down on her. With a little color in her cheeks she was even more beautiful and… wait what?

'Nothing… nothing!'

'Do you remember me? My hair?', she asked, pulling a loose strand in front of her face as though expecting to see something else than her fiery red hair color. 'The redheaded what, huh?'

Beca was still hiding under her blanket and groaned annoyed.

Chloe misinterpreted this and instantly her paramedic mode kicked in, leaving her joking behavior behind.

'What? Hey, are you hurt? Your concussion? Did you bump your head?' Softly she touched Beca's forehead which was bright red by now as well. 'You're too hot, I'm going to call a nurse, wait a second…'

Beca suddenly appeared again from beneath the blanket and managed to hold the worried redhead back.

'No no no, stay where you are. Dude! I'm getting excellent painkillers, I'm fine and would love to go home actually. I was just embarrassed.', she explained, letting go of Chloe's wrist.

'Care to tell me why?', Chloe asked, confusedly amused.

'Fine.', Beca gave in. 'I do remember you… Oh! Wanna have a seat maybe?'

She shifted on her bed with a few difficulties because of her leg and her tubes, but managed to create a little space for Chloe to sit next to her injured thigh.

The redhead sat down carefully, looking at Beca expectantly. 'You remember me… and?'

Beca sighed. 'I remember your voice telling me to stay awake. That Stace is in the front with you or something. And I saw you. I could have sworn it was only a dream. The redheaded angel. There. There you have it, Happy?'

Chloe stared at her for a second before bursting out with laughter. 'Oh my God!'

'Stop it!', Beca said, offended. 'I was a little… indisposed as you might have noticed! God… I hope your other patients don't have to go through such an embarrassment when you visit them.'

Chloe calmed down from her laughter attack, still smiling brightly though. 'Don't worry, I'm taking it as a compliment. Aubrey will love this. And…' Now it was Chloe's turn to blush.

'What and?', Beca wanted to know.

'Uhm… well…'

'I told you, too! Come on, why are you turning into a tomato?'

Chloe chewed on her lower lip for a second before she admitted: 'Actually… I don't visit our emergency patients.'

That was true. She hadn't visited any patients before. Aubrey had given her that advice when they had teamed up for the first time, right after Chloe had finished her training. So far it had been a good decision to believe Aubrey. Many people died even if they did the best they could. And sometimes it was just a job. Her co worker had told her to keep it professional this time as well, but she had ignored her. Heaven knows why.

'I didn't really was that bad of a case, was I?', Beca wanted to know. 'I mean… it was shitty, but I was just being clumsy. Nothing life-threatening.'

Chloe nodded. 'Yeah. You are painfully injured, but I've seen worse. Sometimes we send flowers. You know… you falling down a ladder, managing to make a hammer fall on your head and then landing on your left hip isn't that dramatic compared to a car accident with seven deaths on the freeway. But at least you tried.'

The brunette nodded, smirking. 'You're well informed. As soon as I am fast enough, I am going to kill Stacie. I bet she was half laughing half crying telling you this.'

Chloe shrugged. 'Aubrey talked to her. But I'd recommend to wait a little. Killing people maybe counts as heavy work and could piss the doctor off.'

Beca grinned. 'Thanks, I'll keep it in mind.', she said, but then she looked at Chloe questioningly again. 'But why would you come, if I'm not dramatic enough? So far I thought it was routine, now I am a little creeped out. And I was the one being creepy about you just two seconds ago.'

Chloe chuckled again. Beca really was something. But how could she have known that before? She just had had the feeling of coming here, but that was probably no valid reason. Not even for herself.

'Uhm… Actually I don't know. You've probably heard by now what exactly happened. Your friend Stacie was the one who found you after all.'

Beca nodded a little, careful not to hurt her head.

'So… please don't think I'm weird or something, okay?', Chloe requested.

'Weirder than it is right now? Well… they have security in here, I guess.'

Chloe shook her head, smirking, trying to put her thoughts in order.

'Well, firstly I wanted to make sure you were okay, of course. Which I haven't even asked yet, but whatever.'

Beca interrupted her with a little laugh. 'Actually, that makes you very sympathetic to be honest. Everyone was asking me how I was doing every five minutes today. It was horrible. I'm fine by the way. The leg will heal, the head is okay and I'm back to work in five weeks. That's the short update.'

Chloe grinned. 'Thanks for telling me, sounds good.' She paused. 'The second reason was… I mean of course I was focused on your wounds and stuff and to help you. But when the worst stuff was taken care of and we had done everything we were able to… I kind of… focused on you?'

The brunette frowned. 'How so?', she wanted to know.

'You know… we were called to a garage. A repair workshop. And I kind of was amazed by you. You were laying there in your smudged blue working pants with basically black hands and a dirty face and I kind of felt respect for you instantly.', Chloe tried to explain.

It was really hard to put it into words. The redhead had found Beca's best friend kneeling next to her on the dirty floor of the garage, trying to do what she could. And there was that tiny brunette in a way too big grey shirt with her name stitched on it messily, oil on her face, her clothes and her hands and blood pouring out of her temple and her leg.

'You respected me? I was laying there, wounded. And because of my dirty outer appearance and my rather unfortunate work clothing you respected me?', Beca repeated.

'I could also say how I thought you were smoking hot, but I thought that would be inappropriate.'

For a second there was an awkward pause and Chloe feared she had made a mistake, but then Beca started laughing, clutching her ribs.

'This is basically the funniest thing ever!', she said.

'What? Why?', Chloe asked with an insecure grin plastered across her face.

For a few seconds, she couldn't get any clear answer though, because Beca was laughing so hard.

'Jesus, Beca, calm down. You're maybe on some good painkillers, but a concussion is nothing to mess with.', she tried to cease Beca's laughter a little.

'Sorry, I know I know, I'm severely injured.' She tried to keep a straight face. 'But… you know… it's just so funny. I tell you some crap about a redheaded angel saving my life and you tell me you see me wounded in an ambulance and you think I'm pretty hot. What is this?!'

She started to chuckle again.

'Ugh… I don't know. Weird. But I kinda had the urge to get to know you.', Chloe stated.

Beca smiled, her eyes still glistening from her laughter. 'And I'm kinda happy about it.'

The redhead blushed a little and lowered her gaze to the sheets.

'Uhm… change of topic. Where is your family?', she asked.

Beca rolled her eyes. 'Stacie has been here the whole day. I had to force her to go home and rest a little. She'll probably be here again soon-ish though. She can't stand it to be at home when someone close to her is in trouble. And my dad is getting some clothes for me. Which sucks, because now Tony is in the garage all by himself and he doesn't even really know how to change a tire.'

Chloe frowned at this. Apparently Beca's dad was working at the garage, too. A family thing maybe? Maybe this Tony guy was her brother?

Apart from telling them what had happened, Chloe hadn't talked to Stacie, but she sounded very nice. Caring.

'So… Tony is a loser?' Deciding to keep the conversation rather light, Chloe left out the fact Beca didn't mention a mother or any other family apart from her dad. There would be time to get to know each other. Right?

'Uhm… kinda. He's an old friend of my dad and pretty old. He's cool and stuff and we get along, but he is only helping us out as long as my dad and I are only my dad and I. So… he doesn't really know anything about cars or bikes and it's fucking with my brain that he is supposed to fix that beautiful Yamaha babe we currently have.', she explained and Chloe started to feel a little lost.

'Uhm… sounds… fucked?', she tried.

'You don't really know anything, either, right?', Beca chuckled.

'Not really, no. But I can change a tire and I once managed to short-circuit the old Chevy from my dad.', Chloe answered sheepishly.

'That's something, I guess.', Beca grinned. 'You like motorbikes?'

Chloe shrugged. 'I like the cool people riding them, I guess. You sound as if you really do know what you're talking about.'

'Now you know why I'm working in a garage. I have a Yamaha myself… It's pretty much genetics. My dad is crazy for that stuff.', Beca responded.

'Oh, amazing. You just got 20 % hotter with a motorbike.'

The brunette laughed. 'Cool. Maybe I'm taking you with me somewhere when I'm all healed.'

Chloe smiled. 'Maybe you will.', she repeated with a hint of hope. 'If you don't make a car fall on your head or something.'

'I think I can be careful for you, if I try really hard.', Beca responded.

'If not, I'll come and save you again.', Chloe promised.

'Can you save me too, please?', a voice from the door asked and Chloe's and Beca's heads shot up to see who was the newcomer.

A tall, pretty woman was standing in the doorway who was vaguely recognized by Chloe as Beca's friend Stacie. She had a playful expression on her beautiful face and was dressed in sweatpants and a simple shirt.

'From what, Stace?', Beca questioned, looking at her best friend suspiciously, trying to figure out if she was going to mess with her.

'From you being your shy dumbass self. Give that poor girl your number or I will. Cuteness overload by the way.', Stacie exclaimed and Chloe blushed. Had she really been trying that hard?

'Sorry. I mean… you don't need to… I'd just like to know how your leg is healing and… uhm…', Chloe tried to make sure Beca didn't feel pressured into anything by Stacie.

Stacie grinned. 'She wants to, believe me. She's just a little… oblivious is the right word, I guess. Thanks for this morning by the way. You guys did some great work. Beca has been high as a cloud the whole morning, being ironic and hilarious to all the nurses and doctors. It's been driving them crazy.'

Chloe laughed. Stacie was even more straight forward than Beca. 'No problem, that's why we do this work.', she said sarcastically.

Beca snorted at this. 'Stacie, would you shut the heck up, please. Exactly that's why nobody wants to go out with me after meeting you.' It was clear how this was meant as a playful comment, but Chloe felt like saying something anyways.

'No, it's fine. This way I didn't have to ask for your number all by myself.'

'I like her.', Stacie said pointing to Chloe as if everything was said with this statement. She came closer and sat down on Beca's other side, checking her injuries while Beca shook her head and wrote down a cell phone number for Chloe to call.

'Visit me, okay?', she requested, handing the redhead the piece of paper.

'Of course. I want to hear more about motorbikes and the other tools which attacked you.' This comment made Beca roll her eyes and laugh at the same time and with a light squeeze to Beca's hand and a wink in Stacie's direction the paramedic stood up.

'It was nice meeting you both.', she said as goodbye.

'Yeah. Uhm… Bye, angel.'

Chloe could see how Beca had meant to make an insider comment, but for Stacie it obviously seemed like a pet name. She grinned when she left to let Beca see she understood it, but just as she was out of the door she heard Stacie say: 'Awh, how romantic. You're going to get married.'

Then a slap and she was screeching 'Ouch! Watch it, Mitchell, or I'll get that hammer!'

Chloe still smiled when she left the hospital.


End file.
